Birthday Cake Transforms Into...

25 September 2011 | Hisham | | Family Pics
 
Pandan cake in Pandan Indah

Well, the birthday cake was transformed into digested matter submerged in digestive fluids in our stomachs. However, the box with which the cake was transported was transformed into ...

 

38 Months

25 September 2011 | sila | | Family Pics
 

So Yaya had her 38 month birthday while we were in New Jersey. Another quick and fun month has gone by, and here is the girl lounging on the bed in the hotel while Papa calls in a delivery dinner order:

No barrettes for once!
 

Batman Punches People

21 September 2011 | Hisham | | Artwork, Comics
 

After having Bruce (Wayne) punched by Carol (Ferris) and upsetting Selena (not Kyle), it's time for Batman to go punch some other dudes.

Don't say I never did anything for you, Selena! Haha!

Larger image can be found here. Version with NSFW sound effects can be with Ryan (Rhodes), who suggested this warm-up sketch.

 

Holy Crap! Star Wars DVD to Blu-Ray Comparisons!

20 September 2011 | Hisham | | Humour, Star Wars
 

IT'S AN OUTRAGE!

Star Wars: The Complete Saga blu-ray set has been released and I have compiled a comparison of five screenshots between the DVD and its corresponding scene in the Blu-ray version. In each image, the DVD version is the top half and the Blu-ray the bottom half. Here follows a commentary on the abovementioned screenshots.

The Opening Crawl

As you can see, the opening crawl in the DVD when viewed in Blu-ray looks so much worse. The blackness of space seems to have been greyed out and smudged in a shape that could be a mountain. Seriously? Someone thought a mountain would look good in space? Even the text font has been changed, perhaps to accomodate extra details about some "Purple Death", which I believe refers to General Tagge's underpants.

The Tatooine Desert

The picture quality is so bad after a transfer to 1080p that some of the characters on screen looks nothing like they did in the DVD (and theatrical) release of the movie. Even Obi-Wan appears to have lost his beard and wears a Conehead hat. Must be a new digital alteration! Bah! Thankfully See-Threepio looks somewhat the same.

Millennium Falcon

Everyone's favourite YT-1300 now has a design which looks futuristic and better than before. However, in the high definition conversion, the image seems to have lost a bit of saturation. Again, the background is so blurred and smudged that Cloud City looks like a bunch of rocks. This is unacceptable!

Cloud City Duel

In the first Luke vs Vader duel, the print is so horrible that you can't see the lightsaber blades at all! And there seems to have been more digital alteration done to Vader's helmet so he looks more like the Marvel superhero Thor. Another example of how the Blu-ray producers caved to current popular movies (in this case, this year's Thor) and altered something so it'll look like it's "in with the times"!

Boba Fett

A fan favourite character, Boba Fett is now digitally altered so it would look less armoured, wearing slacks and - what are those - loafers? Also, whose idea was it to digitally insert rocks around the Pit of Carkoon? Now it totally looks fake! Blasphemy!

Disclaimer: Yes, fake article is totally fake; and no, I haven't bought the Star Wars blu-rays yet because, man, they're expensive from where I'm sitting. Blasted conversion rates. All hail the classic Republic Serials! Commando Cody in that last black and white image has even appeared in this blog once before!

 

Carol Punches Bruce Redux

17 September 2011 | Hisham | | Artwork, Comics
 

Remember that blog entry where Carol Danvers punches Bruce Banner?

Good times. Good times.

Here's another picture where Carol punches Bruce again.

Star Sapphire slugs Batman!

This time Carol Ferris punches Bruce Wayne in the face.

 

The Human Fly: Cornered

14 September 2011 | Hisham | | Artwork, Comics
 

Here's my second submission to Cornered blog, as curated by Calamity Jon Morris. This time it's The Human Fly! I had issue 15 way back when which taught me that The Human Fly was a real guy in real life and there was an elevator going up the Washington Monument.

Click here to view the Cornered entry! And go check out the other Cornered entries as well while you're there!

Click here to check out a larger image at deviantArt.

 

Carol Punches Bruce

11 September 2011 | Hisham | | Artwork, Comics
 

Before Aidilfitri, I went down to The Gardens, a mall in the Mid Valley arcology. There I bought a Copic Ciao brush pen. When I first found it, I asked it, "Where have you been all my life?"

What can I do with a brush pen? Here's what, as illustrated with a quick sketch of Ms. Marvel and the Hulk beating the crap out of each other.

Or is that really Moonstone?
 

Play Argyle and Crew With Your Kids!

09 September 2011 | Hisham | | Artwork, Role Playing Games
 

Argyle and Crews: Adventure in the Land of Skcos is a simple and fun role-playing game produced by Benjamin Gerber which is designed to be played with very young children... using sock puppets! I contributed three pieces of art for this project, including line art for the cover.

The ultimate sockpuppet RPG for kids!

The game is released under the Creative Common License. Purchase Argyle & Crew at:

or you could legally Torrent it using the following torrent file:

At the very least, you don't have to throw your old socks away!

 

Azamar RPG Is Now On Sale!

06 September 2011 | Hisham | | Role Playing Games
 

The Azamar RPG Players' Guide has been released by Wicked North Games and can now be purchased from several online sources.

Here's an excerpt from the Introduction chapter of the book:

Art by Tyler WalpoleExploring Azamar

Azamar is a world where many worlds touch and overlap through Magic.

Each world separated by a barrier the people of Azamar call a Fabric. The Fabric is not something most people can touch or understand. Most commonly used for referring to the Fabric between Azamar and the Blur, a world overlapped with Azamar where the inhabitants are immensely powerful and deadly magical beings known as Fiends. The Fiends serve a council of some kind referred to as the Fiend Lords. At any given time, ten Fiend Lords direct and govern the other Fiends in the Blur.

While the Fabric is not tangible, the Blur-Touched or those who can perceive Magic may concentrate and see where damage exists or holes are open. When damage comes to the Fabric, it reverberates and releases Magical energies, if uncontrolled, have physical or otherwise powerful repercussions capable of damaging the breadth of Azamar.

Azamar can be purchased online at two locations:

If you have the inclination and the cash to spare, try out the Azamar RPG which runs on the Cinema6 system which is the offshoot of the OpenD6 system.

Click here to check out my comprehensive Azamar gallery on deviantArt.

 

Trail of Cthulhu: The Watchers In The Sky

05 September 2011 | Hisham | | GOKL Actual Play, RPG Actual Play, Role Playing Games
 

And so it came to pass Kai attempted to run Trail of Cthulhu role-playing game which he bought at DriveThruRPG. For a demo run, he also purchased The Watchers In the Sky scenario. All he needed were volunteers to run through the scenario who would sacrifice their sanity for the game.

There emerged seven ill-fated volunteers.

From the pdf copy!
 

Salam Aidilfitri from... uh, Ipoh?

03 September 2011 | Hisham | | Family Pics, Food
 

That weekend we tagged along Abang Ngah's engagement convoy from Kampung Permatang all the way to Ipoh, or more precisely near Simpang Pulai. As usual the adventuring party that was formed by the family was a fun and boisterous one - despite the inordinately hot day we had.

Atok and Opah at the kenduri

One thing's for sure: the food prepared by the other family was very delicious.

 

Best ABC This Side of the Euphrates

02 September 2011 | Hisham | | Family Pics, Food
 

When we balik kampung to Sitiawan, we try to drop by at Ain's favourite ais batu campur (ABC) restaurant, which just happens to be at the Lumut Esplanade, overlooking where the Dindings River meets the sea. Most times we arrive, there is an festival-like air to the area which has a food court by the water as well as a children's playground.

Anyways, here's the ABC:

ABC
 

Salam Aidilfitri from Pasir Mas

01 September 2011 | Hisham | | Family Pics
 

This year it's balik kampung to Pasir Mas for Aidilfitri! And for the first time ever, we flew to Kota Bharu.

They make FLYING machines now?

 Why did we fly there? Cause I don't think the car can survive an 8 hour cross-country trip. Heck, it can barely survive a trip to Sungai Buloh.